Veela Inheritance Problems

Chapter 09

"You know we have a larger problem than the attack tonight." Said Severus "as soon as the press conference is over, or maybe if we are lucky, as soon as the Prophet comes out tomorrow, the Dark Lord will know of your association with Potter and demand proof of your loyalties."

Lucius considered the matter for a few minutes. He knew Severus was right. There would be no spying game for him – not bad news by itself since he was not so fond of the idea of exposing himself to so much danger, but it also meant that he would be on top of Voldemort's hit list also a very dangerous perspective.

Now, coming to think of it, he found it very strange that Voldermort didn't seem to know already. It has been three days already, well, technically they were on the morning of the third day, but still... No messages, no summoning, no threats or demands. That was strange. Lucius knew for a fact that Severus, Augustus and he were not the only Death Eaters in attendance at the gathering.

The others were obviously waiting for something. It could be his lead or just expecting him to come forward first. That deserved some thought later on, but now he had more pressing matters to attend.

"The attack tonight will not happen. It is a trap. If any aurors or members of the order show up, Voldemort will know you are the spy." Lucius said at last.

"So, he knows." Sighed Severus.

"He suspects." Corrected Lucius "If he knew you would be dead already."

"It's only a matter of time now, and we will be blind to whatever he is planning next."

"Not necessarily." Said Lucius, "You may be able to convince him that I was the spy all along."

"I'm listening." Said Severus.

"The Dark Lord knows there is a spy, but he doesn't know who yet. Tell him it's me. I can't go back any way even if the others in attendance here are able to do so. Tell him you didn't go sooner because of me, I assured you he was being informed and it was all part of a plan. Since I'm inner circle and you are not, I outranked you and made sure things went my way. You became suspicious of my behavior and decided to take your chances on showing up even without being called."

"He will kill you" Severus faced his friend, "You know he will. He won't rest until you, Narcissa and Draco are dead!"

"He was going to do it anyway," Lucius offered with a smirk. "Don't fool yourself, Severus. It's not you signing my death sentence, it's me lifting yours. Besides, I don't intend to make it easy on him. I'll not let him take any Malfoy without a fight."

"Lucius, are you sure?"

"It's the only way, my friend. You know it as well as I do. Go to him now, before the press conference and tell him that Dumbledore expects you back in time for the damn thing, this way he won't even be able to punish you for not going sooner."

"You are right," conceded Severus, "I'll talk to Dumbledore and go. If all goes well I'll see you this afternoon."

The two friends nodded to each other and Severus left, leaving Lucius and Narcissa to discuss what they would do at the conference that afternoon.

Severus had a quick word with Dumbledore, who approved Lucius' plan, and left Hogwarts unnoticed to inform the Dark Lord of 'his recent discovery of who was the spy'. As it was his habit when he apparated away he sent a brief prayer to the gods that all went well and for the first time in years he felt an answer was coming.

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Half way through the morning lessons, Harry and Ron were called to the headmaster's office. They knew this moment was coming but they were nervous anyway. Last night had gone well enough, they were still alive and in one piece... and no howlers came this morning, so far so good, but Molly Weasley was coming to Hogwarts to 'set things straight', a frightful notion all by itself.

Secretly, Harry wondered if even Dumbledore was able to face Molly Weasley, once she was on a warpath, without flinching and hoping to be someplace else.

The gargoyle slid aside even before they got to it, not a good sign, and a very flushed McGonagall stepped through it, sighing and shaking her head before she saw the two teens. She got a hold of herself again and gestured for them to come along.

"There you are, gentlemen. Well, move along, move along. The headmaster is expecting you," she hurried them up the stairs in to the headmaster's office, and for the first time Harry wondered if Molly Weasley was the biggest of his problems. Across the room, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black stood up and faced their godson. Harry and Ron gulped as McGonagall closed the door behind them.

"Ah, Harry, Ron. How nice of you to join us! We were just talking about the latest events. Would you care to join us?" chipped the Headmaster plopping a lemon drop in his mouth.

"Hello, sir. Remus, Sirius." Harry greeted them trying to delay as much as he could the yelling. At the corner of his eyes he could see that Ron wasn't faring much better at the perspective of facing one Sirius Black in a conversation involving his godson, his only godson, getting married to a Malfoy.

"Harry," Sirius started all of the sudden, "you don't have to go through with it if you don't want to. You know that, right? We can take you away from school before anything happens and we'll simply keep you away until this whole mess is solv... Hey. What did you do that for?." He yelled at Remus when the werewolf slapped him on the head.

"Take him away?" asked Remus astonished.

"Uh... yeah?" offered Sirius not sure why he was getting slapped.

"Sirius, what part of 'Mr. Malfoy claimed him' did you miss from what Albus just told us?" inquired Remus sounding on the verge of his patience.

"Well... it's not set on stone..." Sirius started only to be interrupted by Remus, Dumbledore and McGonagall signing together, "What?"

"Sirius Black!" chipped McGonagall "We've been through this before... twice! Draco Malfoy claimed Mr. Potter in a traditional gathering ceremony. Here," she offered pulling Harry and turning his neck to Sirius so he could see the bite mark, "he bears the mark of a claimed sub, and his chase was the most eventful one on the past... Merlin, I don't know how many years. Every single Dominant present at the gathering stopped the pursuit of any other submissive and they all went for Mr. Potter. I believe that even a few of the older ones considered joining the chase."

"But... he is not married yet." Tried Sirius.

"Just because I didn't get pregnant," murmured Harry still blushing after McGonagall manhandling him and making Sirius turn to him with wide eyes. "Well, it's true."

"Harry," Remus interfered in the staring contest between his friend and his honorary godson, "Do you want to go away?"

Harry looked at Remus as if he had grown another head and blinked a few times.

"I..."

"If you do, we are here for you. We'll take you away for as long as it is necessary, but you have to be sure because Malfoy won't be pleased and he won't be waiting for you if you change your mind five years from now." Remus clarified.

"I... I don't know." Harry sat in one of the armchairs Dumbledore had in his office. "I never considered... mating... with Malfoy before, and half of the time I still feel like I should just go up to him and punch his lights out for good, but... ever since this," said Harry indicating the mark on his neck, "I get weird every time he comes near."

"Harry," called McGonagall sitting by his side and taking his hand in to hers, "is it a good weird or a bad weird?"

"It's good, I guess."

"Well, that settles it," said Dumbledore smiling like a loon, "Mr. Potter will remain here and continue to take part in the marriage negotiations. I believe, Sirius, that even thought you are still on the run from the ministry, the Malfoys won't oppose to your participation on the negotiations."

"Who will be Harry's chaperone?" asked Sirius, "I can't take any official roles until my name is clear."

"And I'm afraid I'm not an option. I'm not family and part of a complete different group of magical creatures." Offered Remus.

"We asked my mom to be Harry's chaperone," Ron spoke for the first time since entering the room, "she should be here any minute now."

"A very good choice, Harry. She is close enough to be seen as family and comes from a very proper family." Sirius pondered out loud. "Now, how in Merlin's name did all of this happen in the first place?"

"And that would be my cue," said Dumbledore getting up and walking out of the door, "you may stay in my office, gentlemen. Mrs. Weasley will be brought up as soon as she arrives." And just like that the headmaster left the four of them in his office to catch up.

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Snape made his way into Voldemort's chambers where he found the Dark Lord pouring over an assortment of books and parchments scattered over a large table.

"My lord." Said Snape dropping to one knee and bowing his head.

"Ah, Severus. I didn't send for you so there must be something of great importance to bring you here." Snape could hear the irony on the Dark Lord's voice.

"I do hope so, my lord. I come to you with a suggestion for a minor modification in your plans for the Potter brat and I beg your forgiveness if I displease you." Offered Snape still kneeling.

"Speak your mind. Severus. Let me be the judge of your plans." Answered the Dark Lord mildly interested in what his Hogwarts spy had to say since he had no plans for the imminent future.

"It's about the engagement, my lord. I'm following Lucius’ lead on the whole thing, but I do think there was more that we could do." Baited Snape hoping that Voldemort fell for it.

"Engagement? What engagement are you talking about, Severus?" Snape knew he had Voldemort's full attention now.

"The one between the Potter brat and Draco Malfoy, my lord. Not to go against your planning, since the finer details are not know to me, a wise decision but it does cripple any help that I could offer without your prompting, my lord, but perhaps we could get the brat before the originally planned date if..." started Snape, going along with the plan and playing the part of being fooled by Malfoy.

"WHAT?" roared Voldemort, "When did this happen? HOW did this happen?"

"I'm sorry, my lord, I never meant to imply I didn't trust or wouldn’t go along with your plan. It's just that Lucius was not very forthcoming with all the details and..." Snape sputtered pretending to misinterpret the questions.

"Not that. You idiot, when did they get engaged and how did this came to be? And what is this about Malfoy's plan?"

"At the gathering, my lord. It was discovered that Potter is a submissive Veela descendent, apparently a powerful one for what I'm been told. Draco Malfoy was the one who claimed him and now they are engaged. A formal announcement will be made today at the press conference at Hogwarts and Lucius has informed me it was all a part of one of your plans devised to capture the brat and kill him once he is away from the school grounds...and warned me quite passionately that I should not draw attention to me or do anything to jeopardize the situation."

"I see. Start at the beginning, Severus, and tell me everything" Snape could almost see Voldemort's thoughts flying around in his head as he quickly accessed the situation; it was time for the final blow that would save his life and unfortunately put his friend in danger.

"I'm not sure when it started, my lord, perhaps the day before the gathering when Malfoy made sure Potter was given detention collecting herbs in the forbidden forest or perhaps the whole thing was unplanned and it really started at noon, during the gathering..." bit by bit, Snape gave the dark Lord an edited version of the events that had taken place in the past few days, letting Voldemort set the pace of how he should give the information, letting him ask questions and answering as the loyal follower he was suppose to be.

He was also careful not to implicate Draco as more than a Dominant following his instincts, using their surname in order to create confusion and at the same time not compromise his position in case his antics were discovered. He might have been forced to offer his friend as a decoy to the dark lord, but he was not about to give him his godson as well.

"And why, Severus, didn't you come forward sooner with this information?" Snape signed, Voldemort had finally arrived at the point of this whole charade.

"I was following Lucius lead, my lord. He is in your inner circle and I'm not. He outranks me and had assured me it was all part of a plan conceived by you to capture the brat."

"And what made you doubt him?"

"He started asking questions, my lord, about any potions I might be brewing at your request. We had conversations like that many times, he was always interested in my raids or any other assignments. I never suspected anything because I just thought he was keeping himself updated with all the activities and we have been friends for so long, but today..." Snape hesitated on purpose, he knew Voldemort liked the impression he was being persuasive while extracting information from his minions.

"What was different today, Severus?"

"He was... pressing. Like he had little time left." Snape made a show of be looking for words as if not so sure of what to say, "but it was only about the potions and anything else I might be doing by myself for you, my lord, and..."

"And what, Sssseverussss? Out with it." Yelled the dark lord.

"He has been talking to Dumbledore all the time, my lord, more than usual."

"More than ussssual? And how muchh doesss he 'ussssually' talksss to that old fool?"

"He is at Hogwarts every week, my lord, keeping an eye on the man while pretending to go about his governor duties on the school grounds."

"And how long hasss thisss been going on? This eye keeping business of his?"

"Ever since you ordered him, my lord, about six months after your return. He came by the dungeons to gloat about you needing another man on the job you had assigned me."

"The spy! Lucius is the spy!" roared Voldemort, "Go back to that blasted school, Severus, keep an eye on him. Don't let him know that I know about his treachery. I want to know everything that is going on. Write me a full report and make sure to tell me everything you know about Lucius’ visitations to the headmaster. GO!"

Severus ran out of the ruined house and apparated back to Hogwarts' limits, while he made his way back to the castle he said a silent prayer to be doing the right thing and not complicating things even more to his friend.